Abstract
The author presents a semantic study of the words Vexation, Mortification and Indignation
and the psychiatric implications of these terms in the official nosology. The psychological
significance of emotions is analyzed and the current psychosomatic significance of
the concept considered. The clinical difficulties of emotional investigation are touched
on, and the historical differences in the cultural approach to vexation, mortification
and indignation between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are explored, as are
peculiarities of northern and southern style. Finally the expression of those emotions
is considered and the thwarted manner of Staphisagria patients that accounts for so much in the shaping of the clinical picture.